LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

PRESENTED BY 




SOME OF THE 



HINDRANCES AND HELPS 



ADVANCEMENT OF AGIIICULTURE. 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE 

|]ciu |orh ^tate gciriniltural ^ofictir, 

AT THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL FAIR, AT ELMIRA, 18G9, 

BT 

GEORGE DUCKLxYND, 

riiOFESSOU OF AGKICULTt'KE, UXIVKUSITY COLLEGE, 

TOUONTO, AND Sl'X'KETARY OF THE 

BOARD OF AGRICULTUUE 

OF ONTAKIO. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ALBANY: 

CHARLES YAN BENTIIUYSEN & SO>fS' PRINT. 
1869. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. Prmdent^ and Members of the 

New York /State AgricuUural Society : 

Gentlemen : 

I esteem very highly the honor yoii have 
done me, hy inviting me to deliver the Address 
usually given on the anniversary occasions of 
your extensive, instructive and world-renowned 
exhibitions. I have always been accustomed to 
regard your Society with feelings of respect and 
gratitude, as being the precursor of inany simi- 
lar institutions on this wide and fertile Conti- 
nent; and I shall esteem the present occasion of 
addressing the farmers, mechanics, and citizens 
generally, of the old Empire State, among the 
happiest of my life, if I can saj- anything that 
shall, in however humble a degree, tend to 
encourage you in prosecuting the important ob- 
jects contemplated by the founders of this Society 
more than a ([uarter of a century ;igo. 



4 

Orators <and poets of all ages and countries 
have extolled the importance of Agriculture, and 
sung of the charms and beauties of rural life. As 
the first want of man is food, and the only supply 
being the produce of the soil, the cultivation of 
the earth and the keeping of flocks and herds 
must have been coeval with the first fixed forms 
of human society, and the history of this neces- 
sary art may be justly regarded as the history of 
civilization itself. Not only do we depend on 
the skill and industry of the husbandman for the 
staff of life, — "our daily bread," — Imt also, in a 
great measure, for the raw material, as it is 
termed, which the manuf;xcturing and ornamental 
arts of an ever-advancing civilization work up 
into the necessaries and adornments of social and 
domestic life. 

If, therefore, agriculture be so ancient and 
indispensable, not only to the general well-being 
of society, but to the very physical existence of 
man, removed but a degree from the savage state, 
the question naturally arises in every reflective 
mind, acquainted with its general or particular 
history. How is it that this most valuable art has 
not kept pace with the other industries of life, 
but has generally been found lagging behind, and 
frequently exhibiting symptoms of a feeble and 



o 

sickly existence ? There have been laws and 
customs in most of the countries of the old world,- 
affecting the acquisition, distribution, and man- 
agement of landed propert}^, that have done much' 
and unhappily in some cases yet continue, to 
impede the progress of a national agriculture; 
causes from which we, of the new workl, are in 
great measure, or altogether, free. But the ques- 
tion naturally occurs, whether, under favorable 
circumstances, there is anything in the nature 
of agricultural pursuits, per se, that tends to ren- 
der its improvement and progress comparatively 
slow ? I think there is. 

In the first place, in countries of the temper- 
ate zone, at least, it requires a whole year for the 
farmer to make a single experiment, and, as the 
art advances, much longer periods, a;i rotations 
of four, seven, or more years are involved, before 
safe conclusions can be drawn from Avell estab- 
lished data. If to this be added tiie differi^nces 
of soil, even on the same farm, the variable char- 
acter of the seasons, and the many substances 
now employed as manures, it will be at once 
apparent that agricidtural experiments are, in 
their very nature, highly complicated, and the 
num[)or that comes within the experience of the 
busiest and longest life, must be necessarily 



6 

restricted. In most other industrial arts, experi- 
ments may be almost indefinitely multiplied 
within ordinary limits of time, and subjected to 
a series of rigid corrections, so that reliable 
results may, in most cases, be readily obtained. 

Again : The isolated character of the farmer's 
life must necessarily tend, in some measure, to 
retard the j)rogress of his art, as compared with 
those carried on in the populous centres of human 
industry. In cities and towns, merchants and 
manufacturers come in daily contact with one 
another ; inquiry hence becomes stimulated, infor- 
mation rapidly and widely diffused, experiences 
compared; and whatever Jiiay occur to affect tlie 
interests of any particular branch of industry, 
those who pursue it can meet without delay, and 
take counsel in regard to their common welffire. 
Farmers, from the nature of their jjursuits, even 
in this wonderful age of cheap and rapid inter- 
communication, are necessarily cut off, more or 
less, from each other, and can only come together 
at infrequent intervals. It is noteworthy to re- 
mark how comparatively rapid has been improve- 
ment in agriculture, both in the old world and 
the new, since the general introduction of the 
railway, which, with other agencies, has been a 
chief means of quickeniijg the agiicultural mind. 



7 
not merely by cheapening transit, and in some 
instances creating new markets, Ijut chiefly by 
enabling the tillers of the soil to extend the 
sphere of their oljservations, of witnessing and 
comparing different systems of culture, and of 
obtaining valuable information of a reliable char- 
acter from each other's observations and different 
modes of practice. I can remember the time 
when laru'e numbers of Enirlish ftirmers seldom 
went beyond the boundary of their own county ; 
some even hardly passed the limits of their own 
or adjoining parish. What a change has been 
effected since the introduction of the railway ! 
Farmers may now be seen traveling hundreds 
of miles to an Exhibition, or in company as mem- 
bers of a Club, paying periodic visits to inspect 
the practices of distinguished individuals of their 
craft in different parts of the countr3^ A little 
perambulating of this sort has a most salutary 
effect in enlarging the farmer's circle of obser- 
vation, enabling him to gain new ideas, to break 
loose from traditional prejudices, and to improve 
his practice by adapting it to the new lights 
which science and enlarged experience throw 
across his path. 

Among the causes that have retarded the pro- 
gress of husbandry mny be mentioned the a1)sence 



of a healthy and efficient agricultural literature. 
It is true, that a number of treatises on this 
ancient and indispensable art were written by 
distinguished men Ijelonging to the two most cul- 
tivated nations of antiquity — the Greeks and the 
liomans — and in such of their works or fragments 
as have come down to us, we find interspersed 
not a little that is excellent and practical, from 
which we might profit in the present day. These 
writings, however, and even those of a much later 
date, contain, as Lord Bacon said, ^^ no principles;'''' 
that is, they are, notwithstanding the many valu- 
able and practical directions which they contain, 
essentially empirical. Indeed, it could not pos- 
sibly have been otherwise, as agriculture was 
incapable of being reduced to anything approach- 
ing the condition of a science, till chemistry and 
and physiology, at least, assumed a definite form ; 
a result that may be said to be quite recent. 
Going back to the early part of the present cen- 
tury, when Sir Humphrey Davy delivered his 
celebrated lectures on agricultural chemistry to 
the Board of Agriculture in England, and to the 
report of Baron Liebig, on the same subject, to 
the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science, some thirty years ago, we discover the 
cause of the mighty impulse that has in these 



9 

davs been efiven to more earnest scientific re- 
search, and wider and deeper investigations, so 
as to pnt not only the hiboratory, bnt also the 
printing press into a more active and harmonious 
operation. In all civilized countries science, of 
late, has more or less been brought to bear on the 
practice of agriculture with beneficial results, 
and the Reports and Transactions of Agricultural 
Societies in different parts of the world, to- 
gether with a legion of periodical journals in this 
great interest, unmistakably indicate the present 
healthy state of progress, the future limits of 
which it is quite impossible to define. I may 
further observe, that America occupies a foremost 
place in agricultural literature, as the valuable 
Rejiorts and Transactions of this and other Socie- 
ties, with the do?,uments that are annually issued 
bj' the Federal and State governments, amply 
testify. Your numerous weekly and monthly 
periodicals, embracing such pursuits, works 
mostly, 1 believe, of private enterprise, esti- 
mated by their price, ({uality and circulation, 
stand unquestionably ahead of any other .similar 
puljlications in the world. And here I shall be 
only doing a simple act of justic ; by makiilg a 
passing reference to the last Report published by 
your Society. The "getting up," as it is tech- 



10 

nically termed ; its nuraerons and beautifully 
executed illustrations; the seientific and prac- 
tical papers on some of the most important and 
difficult subjects that come within the range of 
modern research, brought down to the jDresent 
state of knowledge, would be an honor to any 
Society, older and wealthier tlian your own. 
Instead, then, of croaking and finding fault on 
account of the slow progress of our art, instances 
such as these should inspire us with glowing 
hopes for the future. 

It htis been remarked that, as a general rule, 
whatever is must valuable and enduring is of 
slow and progressive development. The globe 
we live on — at least its crust — appears to have 
been subjected to physical changes through untold 
and even uninuigined periods of duration. Its 
vegetable productions, the trees of our own forests, 
for instance, — some will endure for centuries ere 
they become finally resolved into the mineral 
and organic constituents of which they are com- 
posed. Our Christian civilization has a most 
interesting and instructive history to tell; its 
numerous vicissitudes, sometimes apparently sta- 
tionary nnd even retrograding, at others marked 
by decided if not rapid progress ; and yet it has 
taken nearly nineteen centuries to reach its pre- 



11 

sent imperfect condition. So, again, as regards 
civil government. What time, talent, states- 
manship and phihinthropj have been expended 
in reducing to a practical form the best way of 
ruling mankind, so as to obtain the legitimate 
object of all sound legislation, " tlie greatest hap- 
piness of the greatest number." In these mat- 
ters our knowledge has to be corrected and en- 
larged by time and experience ; and notwith- 
standing the progress, particularly of late, that 
has marked the history of many nations, who has 
the temerity to athrm of any one of them, that 
it has reached the ne plus ultra of perfection ? So 
it may be that the slow advance of agriculture 
during the past centuries is in accordance with a 
principle of nature, of a much wider application 
than is generally perceived. 

Whatever causes may have contributed to im- 
pede the onward march of agriculture, some more 
difficult to modify or remove than others, I have 
long felt a strong conviction that the most formi- 
dable obstacle to the general advancement of tlie 
art in all ages and countries has Ijeeii, and nnfor- 
tunatel}^ still is, the low estimation in which it 
is held, not only by communities, l)ut also by the 
great mass of its foll-owers themselves; — by this 
1 mean, the little acquisition of an intellectual 



12 

character which has been regarded necessary to 
a farmer. I believe, and rejoice in the convic- 
tion, that a new era is commencing, or rather has 
already commenced in earnestness, in several 
countries of the Eastern hemisphere, and that to 
us here of the We«t, especially, a high and import- 
ant trust has been committed, which, if faithfully 
executed, will be pregnant with untold blessings 
to all coming generations. To thoughtful minds 
the truth is beginning everywhere to be more or 
less distinctly recognized, that it is not every 
man can, by the old routine of mere muscular 
toil, be made a prosperous and improving farmer, 
but that a good general education in the first 
place, supplemented by special study and train- 
ing, with the acquisition of sound business habits, 
are the essential elements of success. The tact 
is, that farmiug, intelligently pursued, is quite 
as nmch an ailair of the mind as of the body. 
Indeed, muscular force, as is well known in all 
other matters, spends itself for naught when not 
directed by mental power; aud most assuredly 
the practice of husbandry is no exception to this 
great, general law ; and he who successfully 
labors to base the art of culture on the facts and 
principles of science, dissipates the darkness and 
uncertainties of empiricism, and becomes, in the 



13 

highest sense, the improver and benefactor of his 
race. Let ns look at this matter for a few min- 
utes in a familiar manner. Let us ask ourselves 
the question, Wliat is Agriculture? and try to 
answer it as briefly and accurately as we can. 
Agriculture, it may be said, is the art of cultivat- 
ing the soil for raising crops for the sustentation 
of man and animals. Now, who that reflects on 
Avliat is involved in this short answer, can come 
to the conclusion that any man, provided he has 
powerful muscles, can make a farmer ? 

The first thing that might strike the attention 
of a reflecting person, in the above definition, is 
the little word "50//;" a term expressing not a 
simple, but an extremely complicated substance, 
comprising a variety of materials, in different 
chemical and mechanical conditions. In travel- 
ing through any considcraJjle area of country, 
you pass over a diversified surface, composed of 
difterent soils, from the disintegration and com- 
mino-lini!; of the various underlving rocks, differ- 
ino" in some instances verv widely from each 
other in chemical composition, and mechanical 
and hygrometric properties. To ac(j^uire what 
may be termed only a practical knowledge of 
soils, a life of observation and farm-experience is 
recjuired ; and if we desire a minute and accurate 



14 

acquaintance with particulars, on which much of 
success or loss in practice may depend, we are 
compelled to invoke the aid of the chemist and 
the geologist. The soil is a very complex thing, 
susceptible at the hands of man of great improve- 
ment, or, as is unhappily sometimes the case, of 
great deterioration ; and no cultivator, however 
advanced his practice, or minute and extensive 
his observation, can obtain the maximum of profit 
and sustain the fertility of his land, without an 
acquaintance with those facts and laws, in rela- 
tion thereto, which science has investigated and 
can alone explain. 

Again : The soil, air, and water contain all the 
constituents which the farmer by means of culti- 
vation elaborates into crops, and it is from the 
former alone that they obtain their mineral or 
inorganic portion. Now mark what is implied 
by this single word, cultivation. It involves, of 
course, the use of tools, implements and ma- 
chines, the efficiency of which mainly depends 
on their mechanical adaptation to the various 
kinds of soils, as regards texture, densitj^, and 
relation to warmth and moisture, and also to 
the habits and special requirements of different 
crops. In addressing an American audience, a 
people so distinguished fur fertility of invention. 



15 

I need only say, that between implements and 
machines constructed on the most aj>proved prin- 
ciples of modern mechanics, and successful and 
profitable farming, there is an intimate and indis- 
soluble connection. Take only that important 
and primitive symbol of husbandry, the plough, 
and without going back to Egypt, or the ancient 
Romans, compare, or rather contrast the imple- 
ments that were in general use in Europe and on 
this Continent less than fifty years ago, with 
those of the present time, and you perceive at 
once how much depends upon the employment of 
such implements as are in their form and con- 
struction in accordance with the laws and well- 
ascertained formulas of mechanical philosophy. 

Further : The farmer cultivates the soil for the 
exclusive purpose, in the first instance, of rais- 
ing crops; in otlier words, such vegetable pro- 
ductions as are best suited to soil, climate and 
markets. He ascends from the dead mineral 
earth to the living organized plant. A tiny seed 
is deposited in the earth, and under the intiuence 
of warmth and moisture germinates, assimilating 
materials from both the air and soil in the pro- 
gress of growth, and after passing through a won- 
derful cycle of changes, reaches the condition of 
a perfect plant, ripens its seed, and thus secures 



16 

the perpetuity of its species. Here he is brought 
directly in connection with the higher teachings 
of Chemistrj^ and Vegetable Physiology. 

The farmer has yet a further and higher ob- 
ject: he raises plants for the sustentation of ani- 
mals. This is the great and ultimate end of all 
agricultural operations. What a beautiful view 
is here opened by the ordinarj^ routine of the 
farmer's dailj' life, of the intimate connection 
between what are termed the three srreat kirio^- 
doms of Nature ! The animal could not exist 
without the vegetable, which in its turn depends 
upon the mineral. Thus he ascends from the 
dead earth to the living plant, on which is nour- 
ished the living, moving and sentient animal ! 
In the breeding, feeding and general management 
of his stock, tlie manner in which these opera- 
tions are conducted may be regarded as an unerr- 
ing index of the state and progress of agricul- 
ture ; and much of the success of the practical 
man will depend on the extent and correctness 
of his knowledge of the principles of Zoology and 
Animal Physiology. 

Now, will it be maintained that agriculture is 
so simple a thing that any youth, however feeble 
his mind and sluggish his mental habits, can 
readily be made into a farmer, and that to engage 



17 

in this pursuit, but little special information or 
training is needed, Ijut simply a large expendi- 
ture of muscular force in accordance with a certain 
time-honored routine ? This, unhappily, has been 
the prevalent feeling of the past, and it is still too 
much so at ])resent; and I repeat, that it is to 
this low and fallacious estimate of the nature of 
agriculture and the qualifications of its pursuers, 
that much of its complained-of slow progress is 
attributable. We must rouse ourselves so as to 
take higher and wider views of this great art, 
which, instead of being the simplest, is one of the 
most difficult and complex, as it is unquestionably 
the most valuable, of the various industries of this 
brief and busy life. 

I am aware that many fallacies have been com- 
mitted b}" persons of sanguine temperament, 
earnestly desirous of correcting this low and 
degrading estimate of agricultural pursuits, by 
too strictly comparing its actual progress with 
that of some other arts. In order that compari- 
sons may not be invidious, it is necessary they 
should be correct. It should be borne in mind 
that the marvelous progress made during the 
present centurj^ in the cheapness and increased 
productions of textile manufactures, bleaching, 
dyeing, calico printing, etc., is in great measure 



18 
due to the application of inorganic chemistry and 
improved machinery ; the former science having 
attained to extraordinary development and exact- 
itude during the past fifty years. The aid which 
chemistry renders the farmer, relates chiefly to 
the nutrition and growth of vegetable and animal 
life, termed organic, a department of the science 
having as yet but a very brief histor3% and the 
pursuit of which is beset with many and peculiar 
difficulties, and is subjected to rapid changes as 
in the progress of discovery, past errors become 
corrected and new truths established. The man- 
ufacturer, by availing himself of the certain aids 
of a more simple and advanced department of 
chemistry, and operating exclusively on dead 
matter, under well-defined physical conditions of 
temperature, light, moisture, etc., is placed in a 
position almost absolutely to command whatever 
results may be desired. How difterent is it in 
these respects with the farmer, whose operations 
are exposed to and influenced by the uncertainty 
and variations of the weather, the changes in the 
nature of soils, often within very limited areas, 
and the complicated workings of that wonderful 
and mysterious force denominated life I In view, 
then, of these simple facts of the case, it would 
oljviously be unreasonable, even under the most 



19 
favorable conditions, to expect agriculture to ad- 
vance with the rapid speed that has of late years 
characterized several of the manufacturing; arts. 
The apparent anomaly, however, only strength- 
ens and illustrates what I am desirous of impress- 
ing on this large and intelligent audience, — the 
necessity and advantage o^ connecting practice lolth 
science. The principles of the latter are as appli- 
cable to the farm as they are to the manufactory, 
and the many and peculiar difficulties which at 
present beset the pursuits of farmers in relation 
to the higher teachings and applications of sci- 
ence, should induce them more earnestly than 
ever to devote their lives to inquiry, patient 
observation and unfaltering perseverance, wel- 
coming with gratitude every ray of light which 
science may throw across their path, in the full 
assurance that, by degrees, present anomalies and 
perplexities of practice will bo explained, and 
this noble art removed in great measnre, if not 
entirely, ont of thc^ dark recesses of empiricism, 
into the cheering and health-iuspiring light of a 
progressive science. 

Having thus spoken of the connection between 
science and agriculture, and of the valuable aid 
the former has of late years rendered the latter, 
with a prospect of still greater benefits in time 



20 

to come, I wish to guard myself against being 
understood as countenancing the erroneous and 
impracticable idea that an intelligent and improv- 
ing farmer must, in the 'professional sense of the 
term, be "a man of science." Such an opinion 
this audience need not to be told is quite Utopian. 
The progress of the natural and experimental 
sciences of the present day is so marvelously 
great that it requires the energies of a life to 
keep pace with almost any one of them. If 
youths, intended for farming, as a means of ob- 
taining a livelihood, were placed in the labora- 
tory to acquire and master the wavy delicate art 
of manipulation in the higher branches of organ- 
ic analysis, with a view of becoming accomplished 
chemists, the time occupied in such studies and 
pursuits must preclude them from acquiring that 
practical knowledge and those business habits, 
apart from which farming must, commercially 
at least, prove a disastrous failure. What is 
really needed, and what is, I think, practicable, 
is so to instruct our 3^outli in the j^rinciples of 
science, as to enable them to appreciate the 
results obtained by scientific men, and advan- 
tageously co-operate with them in eflecting 
practical improvements. The amount of scien- 
tific knowledice which such a view assumes is no 



21 

contemptible modicum, and would demand years 
of patient study and careful observation of an 
active business life to acquire. The great ques- 
tion is, how, in the present state of society and 
its educational appliances, a knowledge of scien- 
tific and practical agriculture can be best ob- 
tained ? 

It has often occurred to me that in this, as in 
most other matters, the best plan is to begin at 
the beginning, by imparting a knowledge to the 
pupils of common country schools of the founda- 
tion principles of good husbandry. Tlie extent 
of the information that could thus be given would 
necessarily be restricted, but it need not on that 
account be otherwise than sound and practical. 
We have alreadj^ several little text-books suited 
for such a purpose, and teachers without the ex- 
penditure of much time and money, might pre- 
pare themselves for the work, which would cer- 
tainly tend to raise their professional status in 
the country, by increasing their respect and 
usefulness. The matter contained in Jolinstoii's 
Catechism of A^ricuJtura' Chtmistnj and Geology, 
and Stephens' Catechism of Practical Agriculture, 
modified and adapted to xVmerican wants, would, 
if carefully gone through in a country school, 
impart a considerable amount of sound aiul use- 



22 

fill instruction, and lay a firm foundation for 
whatever subsequent additions the pupils might 
acquire to erect thereon. It would be a pleasing 
and instructive object to have country schools 
provided with gardens for experimental and illuv 
trative purposes. Such adjuncts would • form 
valuable auxiliaries of teaching, and also tend to 
refine the tasto and enlarge the minds of the 
pupils. A school house, instead of being, as is 
even yet too much the case in old and wealthy 
districts, bald and uninviting in appearance, if 
not posit ivel}^ repulsive, should be expressive 
and in harmony with its primary objects, both in 
its exterior and interior features, and a little or- 
namental planting and fencing would, as in the 
cases of churches and other buildings, public and 
private, very much improve the landscape of the 
country and add a new charm to rural life. 

Agricultural Colleges have, of late years, at- 
tracted no inconsiderable amount of attention, 
both in Europe and America, and a number of 
experiments have been made with very varying 
degrees of success. The immense grants of the 
public lands made a few years ago by the Federal 
government for the establishment of agricultural 
colleges, and the prompt action taken by many 
of the State Legislatures to reduce the noble pro- 



23 

ject to practice, redound to the honor and intel- 
ligence of this great nation. An old and distin- 
guished member of this Society has immortalized 
his name, and done imperishable honor to his 
country by the princely munificence which 
founded the Cornell University, in this State ; an 
institution which recognizes the true dio-nitv of 
hunum labor, ))oth of the mind and of the hands, 
and strives in a natural and beneficent manner 
to combine both in harmonious relation. Every 
true friend of his country and race must earnestly 
desire that this and similar institutions may 
realize the aspirations of their founders and pro- 
moters, and impart untold blessings to posterity. 
It would be impracticable to lay down, in all 
cases, a])solute rules for teaching agriculture, 
theoretical or practical, in pul)lic institutions, as 
much must depend on the varying circumstances 
of each country or State. If elementary instruc- 
tion were generally given in primary schools on 
the leading principles of this art, a desire, no 
doubt, would be increased, in many instances, fur 
more extensive and minute inrormatiou, which 
the higher order of colleges only could impart. 
When it is found impracticable to establish and 
sustain a pure and independent agricnltural col- 
lege the object might, to a great extent, be 



24 

accomplished by incorporating an Agricultural 
Department with already existing educational 
institutions, possessing a staff of teachers in the 
various branches usually comprised in a Univer- 
sil:}' course of instruction. A farm of more or 
less extent for experimental and illustrative pur- 
poses would seem to be a necessary appendage, 
where the teaching of the class room might re- 
ceive a practical exemplification in the field or 
the garden. And here I may observe that agri- 
culture, or the other industrial arts, cannot be 
thoroughly learnt in colleges or schools however 
well adapted they may be for teaching their sci- 
entific principles; the farm and the workshop 
are the only places where a practical knowledge, 
constituting an accomplished workman, can be 
obtained. It is most desirable that youths, in- 
tended for agriculture as a pursuit, should be 
regularly trained to firm labor, and in all young- 
countries especially, such a condition is a neces- 
sity. Work, both of the head and hands, consti- 
tutes the basis of e\Qry sound system of agricul- 
tural education. And after all, perhaps, to make 
a thorough and accomplished agriculturist, one 
whose acquirements will enable him to extend 
the bounds of knowledge, and enable him to adapt 
himself to the varying circumstances and condi- 



25 

tions of practical life, lie must study in more 
than one school, and become familiar with more 
than one system of instruction. The facts and 
laws of science he can learn in the college, and 
observe their application to practice on the 
experimental grounds ; but he will further re- 
quire a wider circle of observation only to be 
acquired Ijy travel, and thus make himself person- 
ally acquainted w^ith the different systems of 
management pursued by distinguished cultivators 
and breeders in various localities or countries. 

Among the most efficient means of advancing 
the agricultural and cognate arts, I feel no hesi- 
tation in placing Societies, such as the one whose 
annual exhibition many thousands will have wdt~ 
nessed on these grounds during the present week. 
Happily, Societies of this nature have been 
formed in most civilized countries, and their suc- 
cess, upon the wdiole, must be considered decid- 
edly encouraging. Numbers, no doubt, attend on 
these occasions for mere holiday pleasure, and 
probably carry away but little information that 
will Iteneht either themselves or others. It is to 
be regretted that the great essential objects and 
functions of these shows are not more clearly 
and generally understood, and their teaching- 
power more deeply and w idely felt. To see and 



26 

to observe are too frequently very different 
things. It is the facilities given to observation, 
comparing one thing with another, and the draw- 
ing of sound practical conclusions from a suffi- 
cient number of well-observed facts, that give to 
occasions like this their principal means of use- 
fulness. The management of these shows, as 
they increase in size and complexity, requires 
continued modification, and is yet susceptible in 
all instances of improvement. I observe that 
you have adopted the plan of entering articles 
some weeks previous to the holding of the show, 
a practice which we in Canada (Ontario) have 
pursued with much satisfaction for several years. 
Now, we have only to take a step or two further; 
so to limit the period for taking entries, and make 
it absolute, that sufficient time may be affijrded 
for compiling a complete classified catalogue or 
catalogues, and providing in the show-yard and 
its buildings, " a place for every thing, and have 
everything in its place." To this state of ad- 
vancement most of the great National Societies 
of Europe have already brought their exhibitions, 
and we on this side of the Atlantic would greatly 
consult the convenience and information of visit- 
ors, and materially enhance the interest and 
increase the usefulness of our exhibitions by fol- 



27 
lowing, as close and rapidly as circnmstances 
admit, so good an example. The management 
of the Royal English Society's show, last year, 
at Leicester — the ease and harmony of its work- 
ing — was to me a marvelous phenomenon. The 
grand secret of all this consists simply in the 
final closing of all entries in proper time to allow 
of the necessary arrangements for the placing of 
the articles in an orderly and systematic manner. 
Further: It has appeared to me that a longer 
time tlian is ordinarily given is required to bring 
fully out the teaching-power of our exhibitions. 
Live stock probably could not be kept longer 
than it usually is, without incurring an amount 
of inconvenience, risk and expense that might 
discourage exhibitors. But, as regards mechan- 
ical, manufacturing and fine arts productions, 
and those of the fiirm and garden, that is, with 
the exception only of animals, the same reasons 
do not apply, or, at least, only in a very inferior 
degree, while the addition of only one or two 
days to the very contracted time usually allotted 
the public to observe these departments, would 
be both welcome and advantageous to all visitors. 
I have often thought that we go to enormous 
trouble and expense to get great crowds together 
for a day or two, in which it is always difficult, and 



28 
sometimes impossible, for individuals desirous of 
obtaining information, to inspect the articles with 
any degree of care or comfort The suggestion 
which I have ventured to make would, to a con- 
siderable extent, at least, rectify this serious 
defect. 

It has often occurred to me that there is a 
latent power of good in local agricultural socie- 
ties that would be of great public benefit, if it 
were properly developed. I refer to the advan- 
tages that would follow the more frequent meet- 
ino; of their members, for the consideration and 
discussion of subjects of a practical or scientific 
character. Members of the majority of township 
societies are commonly satisfied, I believe, with 
an annual lair, and meeting for the yearly trans- 
action of Inisiness and election of officers. Exhi- 
bitions are very useful and excellent things, but 
they are not everything. An agricultural society 
should be, in the strict sense of the words, " a 
muival ijiiprovemmt sociciy.'' This valual)le object 
is, no doubt, largely obtained by bringing the 
results of industry before public attention, for 
inspection and competition. Such occasions 
awaken thought and interest, inspire men with 
hio'her aims, and more powerful motives to im- 
provement. Periodical meetings during the re- 



29 

iniiinder of the ye<ar, especially the comparatively 
leisure season to fjirniers — the winter — would 
more eftectnally sustain and direct these impulses 
into fresh and practical channels. In this w'ay 
the alle<*;ed sluo'srishness of the agricultural mind 
Avould be quickened, practical men would com- 
pare notes, and each would inspirit and improve 
the other by tlie mutual interchange of thought 
and the teachings of experience. Thus the foun- 
dations of aoricultural knowledge w^ould become 
broader and deeper, popular fallacies corrected, a 
pleasing social interest strengthened, a taste for 
reading and observation elicited, and the prof- 
fered aids of science with increased earnestness 
invoked, I am not aw^are to wdiat extent "Far- 
mers' Clubs," as they are termed, exist in this 
countr}^; — the one in the city of New York lias 
for many years had a wide reputation ; and I have 
felt much pleasure and derived considerable profit 
from reading the reports of meetings for discus- 
sion during the exhibition-week of your Society, 
and also of its winter-meetings in Albany. If 
the smaller societies in the country w^ouhi gen- 
erally follow out this principle, a fresh and most 
salutary impulse would be given to agriculture, 
and young men engaged in the pursuit would 
take a £»;reater and more rational interest in its 



30 
advancement, and better prepare themselves for 
the discharge of the public duties of life. Refer- 
ring to young men — how is it that so many aban- 
don the rural pursuits of their fathers, and rush 
into cities and towns, to intensify the already 
severe competition generally existing in com- 
merce and the professions ? 

There are doubtless several causes which con- 
spire to produce this social phenomenon; the 
principal I believe to be, what has already Ijeen 
referred to — the fixlse and low estimate commonly 
put upon farming a% a pursuit. It is yet too 
much regarded as a monotonous life of drudgery, 
naturally inferior in social status to the more 
dazzling occupations of city lite, and utterly pow- 
erless as a means of acquiring a fortune. Young 
men of ardent imaginations and undisciplined 
minds soon become dissatisfied with what to them 
is one dull and dreary round of duty. How little 
is done in many country homes, to make them 
attractive to the young, and often still less on 
the fjirni, to render its various seasonal opera- 
tions a source of rational interest and agreeable 
information! Give to youth such an education 
and training as will enable them to comprehend 
and appreciate the wonderful phenomena of their 
daily life, and they will soon feel convinced that 



31 

agriculture is an intellectual, agreeable and dig- 
nified pursuit, alike favorable to health of body, 
and strength and purity of mind. Practical firm- 
ing of course implies a certain amount of manual 
labor, but this, within proper bounds, is a bless- 
ing, rather than a curse. Everybody knows that 
physical exertion of some kind or other is an 
essential condition of l)odily health; and the 
farmer has the pleasure and advantage of labor- 
ing in a sakibrious atmosphere, under the blue 
vault of heaven, surrounded by the beauty and 
charms of country scenery. Besides, if the 
farmer has at particular times to work hard 
through many a long day, we must not suppose 
that city life is one of peculiar ease. It is, prol)- 
ably, on the whole, a harder life than that of the 
country. Men, as a rule, do not make fortunes 
in trade, or rise to eminence and opulence in the 
professions, without powerful and continuous ex- 
ertions of the mind, and sometimes, too, of the 
body. Multitudes in every large city labor hard 
day by day, for little njore than a bare subsist- 
ence, enjoying but few nitellectual resources, or 
the amenities of social life. In a country like 
yours, where class distinctions are not sharply 
drawn, and honest laljoi' in any department of 
industry need not be ashamed to raise its head, 



32 

what a pity it is to see the youth from the coun- 
try, the strength and hope of the State, flocking 
into the cities to intensify, as I have already 
said, the competition that even now is, in many 
cases, overdone. As to the making of a fortune, 
if by this is meant the securing of a competence 
after an honest, industrious business life, agricul- 
ture holds out inducements generally, when in- 
telligently pursued, equal at least to those of 
commerce or the professions. It may be a some- 
what slower way of making money, and devoid 
of the few dazzling prizes belonging to the lot- 
tery of trade, but its gains, if smaller and slower, 
are in the long run surer. I have a strong mis- 
giving that our modern systems of education, 
vastly improved and enlarged as they have been 
of late, are yet in some important things much 
wanting; and that they indispose our youth to 
enter with hearty good will on those particular 
pursuits which necessarily involve the perform- 
ance of manual laljor — pursuits, we should re- 
member, that constitute the very foundation and 
framework of society. Now, this pernicious ob- 
jection can only be removed by enlightening 
public opinion and reforming educational sys- 
tems, so that youth will be taught, not merely 
in theory, but in practice nlso, to compreliend 



33 

and appreciate the worth and dignity of laljor, 
whether of the head or hands, or, what shoidd 
always he the case, of hoth conjoined. I cannot 
regard onr position as farmers to he hopeless, as 
the fact is trnly encouraging that every improve- 
ment made in agricultural mechanics — and such 
improvements in this mechanical age are great 
and rapid — as this and similar exhihitions tes- 
tify, necessarily tends to diminish the severity 
and monotony of manual labor. Ploughing, for 
example, with our modern and improved imple- 
ments, is quite a different thing from what it was 
with the heavy and ill-constructed ones of thirty 
or forty years ago ; and the threshing, reaping 
and mowing machines, in the perfection to which 
they have already been brought, reduce human 
labor, as it were, to a minimum, and in great 
measure relieve the husbandman of some of the 
hitherto most laborious of his operations. 

The agricultural world seems certainly, if not 
rapidly, adopting a new power in the cultivation 
of the soil, and for diminishing manual and ani- 
mal lal)or, that will form a new and striking 
epocdi in the history of the art. I refer to the 
application of steam to farm work. The steam 
plough has already obtained a firm footing in the 
British Islands, and several European countries, 



34 
in Egypt and India, in Anstralia and New Zea- 
land. From what I saw last year of its working 
both in England and Scotland, and the severe 
and extensive trials to which it was snbjected at 
the Uoyal Show at Leicester, the few misgivings 
I might have had relative to its practical and ex- 
tensive adaptation w^ere certainly removed. Not 
only is steam culture cheaper than horse, but it 
can be made deeper and more thorough than it is 
j^ossible to do by the ordinary methods. It has 
been said that the age of the plough, the old 
characteristic symbol of husbandry, is gradually 
drawing to a close, and that, this ancient imple- 
ment will be superseded by the cultivator or 
grubber. Without endorsing this opinion in its 
entirety, there is no doul)t some reason in its 
favor. For many purposes, and in particular 
conditions of the soil, the action of the grubber 
is far more advantageous than that of the plough, 
as a more perfect disintegration and commingling 
of the whole mass is thereby effected ; and there 
seems a growing tendency in an advancing agri- 
culture to produce tliis thoroughly breaking up 
and mixing the soil in preference to the simply 
turning of it over, as is done in ordinary plough- 
ing. There is, besides, an increasing conviction 
among those that have adopted steam cultivation 



that better crops are therel^y produced ; and 
from the opportunities I have had for observation 
on this matter, I am constrained to agree with 
the conclusion. I couhl not help remarking last 
summer on the farms of the Messrs. Howard, of 
Bedford, the renowned agricultural implement 
makers, as also in other parts of England, that 
the growing crops appeared more luxuriant and 
promising where steam culture had been adopted, 
all other conditions, soil, manure, &c., being ap- 
parently equal, than when, sometimes in the 
same field, what was considered good horse-power 
cultivation had been practiced. The difference 
in favor of the former was explained by the facts, 
that steam power effects a deeper, more thorough 
and uniform moving and intermixing of the soil, 
without subjecting it to the tramping of horses, 
which in wet weather and on heavy land, every 
practical man knows is very detrimental. The 
steam plough has, as yet, been only introduced 
for experimental purposes, 1 believe, in this 
country. Various causes have combined hitherto 
to prevent its general introduction. 

Notwithstanding, I feel it is a moral certainty 
that on this continent, jiarticularly on the im- 
mense prairies of the great West, the steam 
plough will one dny achieve its proudest triumphs. 



36 
The richest soils, after the exhaustive crop2:)ing 
to which they are commonly subjected, will 
require deejjer and more perfect cultivation in 
order to sustain their wonted fertility, and there 
can, 1 think, be little doubt that in, it may be a 
few years, these improved modern appliances 
will renovate many of your already deteriorated 
soils, and impart a fresh impetus and give a new 
and much improved character to American agri- 
culture. 

In a new and extensive countr}^, possessing 
various decrees of natural fertilitv, where the 

CD «/ -' 

23rice of labor is high, and that of produce com- 
paratively low, the farmer is strongly tempted to 
adopt a system of tillage that will surely, 
although at first almost imperceptil)ly, diminish 
the productive power of the soil. This gradual 
deterioration is sometimes allowed to proceed to 
such an extent that cultivation ceases to be pro- 
fitable, and the land may be abandoned and re- 
vert back to its original wild condition. In an 
immense continent like this of North America, 
where there are yet many millions of acres of 
untouched virgin soil. of great natural productive- 
ness, it would be unreasonable to expect the adop- 
tion of systems of culture which have long been 
profitably practiced in the older, smaller, and 



87 
more populous countries of the Eastern hemis- 
phere. Still it must be obvious, on a little reflec- 
tion, that even in America some limit will have 
to be put to the operation of this principle of 
deterioration, or the period will be reached when 
farming will cease to be remunerative, or the 
land to yield sufficient food to meet the growing 
wants of a rapidly increasing population. The 
great problem to be solved l)y the American 
farmer is how best to sustain the equilibrium be- 
tween waste and supply. Every crop he raises 
abstracts from the soil a certain amount of min- 
eral ingredients, constituting the essential ibod 
of plants. If this waste be suffereil to go on 
without repair, the ultimate result will surely 
be sooner or later reached, the exhaustion of tlve 
soil; or, in other words, a soil so weakened by 
over-cropping and non-numuring that its cultiva- 
tion ceases to be profitable. Amidst the too 
general tendency of diminished productiveness, 
it is encouraging to be assured that in most 
instances exhaustion of the soil is rclotive rather 
than absolute. A farm absoluteli/ exhausted, that 
is, the tillable soil deprived of all, or nearly all, 
the ingredients necessary to feed healthy crops, 
would, in a countrj' Avhere land is 2)lentiful and 
cheap, Ije dear as a gift, unless it possessed some 



38 
intrinsic value arising from situation, or other 
local circumstances. It is commonly found that 
what is termed exhausted, or worn out land, is 
only in that condition a few inches deep, such 
soils having usually been cultivated in a shallow, 
and imperfect manner ; and below the four or five 
inches to which the plough has penetrated, there 
is frequently locked up a considerable store of 
plant-food. In such cases deeper cultivation, 
and a more intimate mixing of the soil w^ill some- 
times, w^ithout extra a2)pliances, restore its lost 
fertility. Cultivation, of course, does not create 
matter, but simply changes its mechanical and 
chemical condition. It frequently lia2)pens that 
soils considered infertile contain a sufficient 
amount of plant-food in a dormant state, and all 
that is required to bring it into a condition to 
enter into the circulation of growing crops is to 
admit freely air, warmth and moisture by means 
of deeper cultivation. 

There are, however, too many instances of 
land being worn out by over-cropping, that deep- 
er tillage alone w^ill not be found sufficient, but 
extra substances must be applied to the soil be- 
fore its lost productiveness can be restored, hence 
the necessity and value of what are termed ma- 
nures. It is in this department of husbandry 



30 
that modern chemistry has rendered the greatest 
service, not merely by analyzing the products 
yielded by the decomposition of plants, and 
therefore defining the nature and relative amounts 
of the various constituents of their food, but also 
b3^ so treating a numl)er of substances which oth- 
erwise would remain useless, or positively inju- 
rious, as to work them up into special manures 
adapted to the requirements of particular crops. 
In Europe the manufacture of artificial manures, 
as the}' are termed, has for some time assumed 
gigantic proportions ; and it is encouraging to find 
that in several of the larger cities of this Conti- 
nent, similar manufactures have already made a 
successful commencement. Many English farm- 
ers annually expend as much money in purchas- 
ing artificial manures and cattle food, as the 
amounts of their respective rents. This, with a 
thorough and clean system of cultivation, will 
account for their high average produce; fifty or 
sixty bushels of wheat per acre being now grown 
on land which a quarter of a century ago only 
produced twenty-five or thirty. We sometimes 
read with feelings bordering on incredulity, of 
the enormously hirge crops raised under the sys- 
tem designated '' high farming T but there can be 
no doubt that in a country like England, an ex- 



40 

penditure that appears to us enormous, if not 
Utopian, is, when directed by sound judgment 
and experience, productive of a maximum profit. 
It has been said " that the soil is always grateful, 
but it will have so.kiething to be grateful for." 
Teniint-farmer.^ in Britain may generally be said 
to have a working capital of from eight to ten 
pounds sterling per acre, the amount depending 
greatly on the system pursued. I was told last 
year, by an Eu.glish tenant-farmer pursuing the 
mixed husbandrj^, tliat lie had sixteen pounds an 
acre, and he felt confident that his business could 
l)e made more profitable by increasing his cap- 
ital. Yet, even in England, one constantly hears 
the com})laint that too little capital is invested 
in the management of land, and practical men 
generally endorse the sentiment. Certainly on 
this side the Atlantic our larming capital gener- 
ally is miserably deficient, and farmers, as a rule, 
could make no investment of their savings so safe 
and profital)le, as to use them for the further de- 
velopment of their oavu freeholds. 

We must be careful, however, in drawing 
practical conclusions from analogical reasoning 
founded on the conditions and practices of British 
agriculture, as applying to our own, under differ- 
ent circumstances. What might pay well to do 



41 

in England, might, if attempted in the same man- 
ner, entail an actual loss in this country. True, 
the principles of agriculture are the same all over 
the world, i)ut it requires both caution and local 
experience in properly modifying their applica- 
tion to meet the varying conditions of soil, cli- 
mate, and markets. In old populous countries, 
where land is high in price and in constant de- 
mand, it may pay well to incur a very heavy 
expenditure in restoring absolutely exhausted 
farms; but in America, where land is plentiful 
and cheap, and the appliances for restoring a lost 
fertility, scarce and dear the operation would 
likely prove a heavy loss, the market value of 
the improvements falling below their cost. 

There is an old adage of a very wide applica- 
tion, which comprises the case under considera- 
tion : " An ounce of preventiori is worth a pound 
of cure." It is certainly much cheaper, and in 
some respects even easier, to keep the soil in 
good heart, when we have it in that condition, 
than to sutler its j^roductiveness to decline, and 
restore it afterwards. This, no doubt, would be 
the practical sentiment of farmers generally, if 
they took a broad and prospective view of the 
case, and felt a permanent interest in the land. But 
it has been too much the fashion to look too ex- 



42 
cliisively for immediate results, and to adojot a sys- 
tem of management whicb^ while it enriched the 
fathers, must inevitably impoverish the sons. The 
vast fertile and unoccupied areas of the West, 
yielding for a while bountiful crops with little 
care and expenditure, have, doubtless, tended to 
retard the healthy deveh)pment of agriculture in 
the Eastern and Central States, and this cause 
will continue to be felt, more or less, till that 
immense region, — of the extent and resources of 
which we are beginning now to form some defi- 
nite conception, — becomes peopled with an indus- 
ti'ious and thriving population. When that period 
shall have arrived, and the progress is assuming 
immense rapidity and proportions, the motives 
to exhaust land here, remove and commence a 
similar operation on new and fertile soils there, 
wdll be reduced to a minimum, and American 
agriculture, as a whole, will assume a high and 
homogeneous character, ultimately working out 
for itself a position, whether for magnitude or 
excellence, that will be unsurpassed by any por- 
tion of the habitable world. 

From a pretty intimate acquaintance wdiicli I 
may be supposed to have of Canadian agricul- 
ture, which in its leading features must resemble, 
more or less, that of these Northern States, there 



43 
are a few important points on which I am accus- 
tomed to insist, and which may not l)e devoid of 
some interest and relevancy on this side of the 
lines. I say to our people, cultivate less, and culti- 
vate better. It is tlie slovenly and superficial cul- 
ture, so widely practiced, that keeps the average 
of our crops so low. Really, when we consider 
how little the soil receives, and how much is 
taken from it, the wonder is, not that it produces 
so little per acre, but that it grows so much. I 
feel morally certain tliat much of the land in the 
old world, if it received no better treatment than 
we are accustomed to give ours, would Ijc inferior 
in production even to our own. Cultivating 
less, does not necessarily imply growing less. 
Every practical man knows full well that one 
acre of land properly pre])ared for a given crop, 
will produce as much as double the quantity 
imperfectly and negligently prepared. If, there- 
fore, by adopting an improved system of hus- 
bandry suited to our specific wants, we can pro- 
duce as much grain, roots, etc., from a less 
surface, the remainder can be made profitable in 
another way, that is, in pasture, whereby we 
give the land " rest," and enable it to sustain a 
laro;er number of live stock. Between " corn 
and horn," to use an old phrase, there is an inti- 



44 
mate connection and a mutual dependence. By 
kee})ing more stock of improved and suitable 
breeds, we get larger and quicker money returns, 
make more manure, which is the farmer's sheet 
anchor, after he has diminished the often great 
natural fertility of his virgin soil. 

I can see no other method, alike practicable 
and ])rofitable, of restoring and sustaining the 
fertility of the soil. As the population of the 
country increases, particularly in the great cen- 
tres of manuhicturing and commercial industry, 
the demand for food of improved quality propor- 
tionately increases. Prices advance for grain 
and meat, and a fresh impetus is given to both 
departments. The more cattle ai?d sheep the 
farmer keeps, the more grain he grows, as ani- 
mals are the manufacturers of manure, that is, 
the food of crops. And here let us pause a mo- 
ment, and reflect on the lamentable waste o^' 
productive power, arising from the most culpable 
neglect of the precious article of farm-yard ma- 
nure. I don't exactly know how tliis matter 
stands with you on this side the boundary, but I 
never meet a body of our farmers without remind- 
ing them of the fact, that from unneces ary ex- 
posure, barn-yard manure is frequently reduced 
in value forty or fifty per cent; a loss that might 



45 
generally be prevented hy the exercise of a little 
forethought and care, involving no heavy pecun- 
iary expenditure. In old-settled sections such 
waste is unpardonable, and would be considered 
inhuman, if plants were regarded as possessing a 
sensitive organization. I can remember when 
this kind of manure was similarly neglected in 
the more backward districts of England, and felt 
puzzled to determine which inflicted the greater 
evil on his country, the tenant-farmer who neg- 
lected his manure to develop his crops, or the 
game-preserving landlord, who caused them to 
be eaten up. The possession of land is a sacred 
trust, and society sanctions by law the right of 
private ownership on the understood condition 
that it be used in such a manner as to confer the 
greatest benefit, not merely on the individual 
owner or occupier, but on the community at 
large. 

Among the most efficient means of agricultural 
improvement in the temperate zone, at least, is 
Draining, an artifice that has been attended by 
the most beneficial results, particularly on wet 
and heavy soils. I will say a few words both of 
caution and encouragement on this subject. I 
have found newly arrived settlers in the newer 
parts of Canada, who had been accustomed to the 



46 

use of draining tools, quite cast down in spirits, 
because they found themselves unable to carry 
out in practice the refined, elaborate, and expen- 
sive systems of draining to which thej had been 
accustomed in the parent country. The difficulty 
in some instances of getting a sufficient outfall, 
and no draining tools, or pipes being accessible, 
the operation was looked upon with feelings bor- 
dering on despair. I have spoken words of en- 
couragement to such people, and shown them 
how they might make a commencement, at least, 
with success. In a new country especially, we 
must be guided in the character and extent of 
our operations by the main physical conditions 
of the surface ; in other words, aid and improve 
nature's drainaoe. The clearing out of streams 
and creeks where they are obstructed by mud, 
fallen trees, and aquatic plants, is the first lesson 
to learn in practical draining. In this way an 
outfall can be generally obtained ; but in very 
level districts to accumplish this primary and es- 
sential object, the co-operation of several owners 
of land, through considerable distances, is some- 
times necessary. Few can fullj^ understand, 
apart from personal experience or observation, 
what an advantage it is to improve the natural 
water channels of a wet and level district. This 



47 

preliminary being acconiplislied, the making of 
open or covered drains, as circnmstances reqnire, 
may be advantageously proceeded with. In the 
older cultivated dif-tricts of this country the 
more thorough and refined British systems of 
draining may be profitably followed, subjected to 
such modifications as differences in soil and cli- 
mate naturally suggest. In a new country, liow- 
ever, draining must be, as a rule, differently com- 
menced and executed, to what can be done in 
such as are older and wealthier. A ditch dug- 
out as narrow at the bottom as the tool will 
allow, and partly filled with old rails or the 
boughs of trees, closel}" trodden down with a por- 
tion of the moved earth, will often answer an 
excellent purpose for several years. I observed 
in England last summer a few drains in a field 
two or three of which had not wholly lost their 
functions, which I assisted in making when a hoy, 
near half a century ago. The land is in perma- 
nent pasture, exceedingly tenacious, the drains 
were dug three feet deep (considered in those 
days "deep draining"), and the width gradually 
diminishino- to about two inches at the bottom, 
in which was placed heath (heather) and the soil 
returned thereon^ closely tramped down. The 
durability of such draining in clay soils, when 



48 

carefully executed, and with which cultivation 
or wild animals do not interfere, is almost incred 
ible. I mention these facts to encourage settlers 
in new districts to commence and persevere in 
the prosecution of such an efficient method of 
agricultural and sanitary iniDrovement. The 
ditching plough, which has recently received im- 
portant structural modifications, promises to 
become a very valuable implement in cheapening 
and extending draining processes. Before, how- 
ever, dismissing this subject it is important to 
observe that the cheap sj^stem of draining (if 
what has been suggested can be so designated) is 
intended simply as introductory and provisional, 
as the best suited to the wants and circumstances 
of new settlers. There is no other agricultural 
operation that calls for the exercise of more 
judgment and care ; and when means and appli- 
ances admit, no reasonable amount of expense 
should be spared in making the work as eifective 
and permanent as possible. 

I cannot conclude without again very briefly 
adverting to the immense progress made of late 
years by the exhibitions of this Society, and the 
improvements in agriculture and other industrial 
arts that must have resulted therefrom. From a 
humble commencement, not much more, 1 be- 



49 

lieve, than a quarter of a century ago, the course 
of this Society has been constantly onward, and 
its inliuence for good has been widely felt, not 
only in this and neighboring States, but through- 
out the Union and the Dominion of Canada. 
Indeed its fame has extended to every country of 
the civilized world. Its contributions to our 
common agricultural literature, the researches it 
has instituted into the nature and treatment of 
new and mysterious forms of disease of a most 
malignant character among the domesticated 
animals, and the thorough, systematic trials of 
farm implements and machines which it has on 
several public occasions made, impart to your So- 
ciety a very high character for energy and 
usefulness. 

What a magnificent theatre does this great 
country present for the working out of the en- 
lightenment, freedom and happiness of our com- 
mon humanity ? Extending east and west from 
one ocean to another, and from the great lakes 
in the north to the gulf of Mexico in the south, 
comprising almost every climate, traversed by 
rivers of unrivaled magnitude, and richly en- 
dowed by nature with the means of agricultural, 
manufacturing and mineral wealth, it offers homes 
of plenty and comfort to the many thousands of 



50 

the sons of toil who annually land upon its 
shores. I well remember, now more than half a 
century ago, a mechanic with his family emigrat- 
ing from my little picturesque native village in 
the south of England, to the western portion of 
the State of Illinois, which at that day was 
regarded as the " far west." It took him more 
time and trouble to get from New York to his 
destination than the whole ocean voyage, Avhicli 
at that period was a much more formidable under- 
taking than it is now. How stupendous the 
changes in the means of locomotion, as in many 
other things since then, supplied by the steam- 
boat and the railroad, the latter now connecting 
the Atlantic with the Pacific! These are truly 
marvelous changes occurring within living mem- 
ory, and their benefits, with yet still further 
developments, will be transmitted from sire to 
son, through all future generations. 

It is now upwards of twenty years since I 
first had the pleasure of attending the New York 
State Agricultural Show, and I have observed 
with much gratification and benefit the astonish- 
ing progress you have made. Many of tlie earlier 
members of this Society, who took a prominent 
part in its management, among whom I had the 
honor of including several esteemed personal 



51 

friends, have been removed from this earthly 
scene. And I cannot allow the present opportu- 
nit}^ to pass, without expressing my deepest sym- 
pathy with the members of this Society, for the 
recent loss of its late venerable, respected, and 
most efficient Secretary. Col. Johnson was no 
ordinary man, and he was known and esteemed 
far beyond the Society, which he so long and 
honorably served. He certainly had a British, if 
not a European reputation, and we, over in Can- 
ada, were accustomed to look upon him as one of 
ourselves. In common with you, Ave mourn his 
loss; m;uiy of his acts of kindly and courteous 
attention will be long and gratefully remembered 
by not a few of the members of our " Provincial 
Association ;" and now, that so good and true a 
man, full of years and honors, has been taken 
from us by the relentless hand of death, all I 
will further say is, what I am sure will honestly 
express the most sacred feelings of all your 
hearts : " Requicscat in pace.'" 

Only another word, and I have done. We 
meet on this occasion to promote the arts of 
peace and good will, the wealth, intelligence and 
haj^piness of Nations. As a British Canadian, I 
wish to express to you, and through you to the 
citizens of the United States generally, the cor- 



52 

dial feeling of my people on the other side of the 
Lakes, not only towards this Society, but for the 
peace and prosperity of your common country. 
We live, it is true, under different forms of gov- 
ernment, but we speak a common language, and 
are j)roud of a common ancestry ; and in fact we 
have so much in common that we regard as good 
and permanent, as will, I most devoutly trust, 
under the guidance and blessing of Divine Provi- 
dence, lead to earnest and harmonious action in 
promoting the material development of our res- 
pective soils, and the peace, liberty, and happi- 
ness of the toiling millions of this vaat Continent. 



